Sixty minutes were not enough to decide a battle between two of the top men's lacrosse teams in the country on Saturday. With 19 seconds remaining in double overtime, Jay Card netted a man-up goal to give No. 12 Hofstra an 11-10 victory over No. 13 Brown, capping a huge comeback from a 10-3 third-quarter deficit.
"We just didn't have the poise down the stretch there to win the game in terms of possessing the ball, in terms of making that last goal," said Head Coach Lars Tiffany '90. "But I never doubt the heart of these men. I love this team. I love these men. They play with a passion, they play with a sense of urgency and they love each other."
The game was attended by 514 boisterous fans, including a large contingent supporting the Pride, who braved icy winds to pack Meister-Kavan Field for a contest between two teams that had escaped their season openers the previous weekend with one-goal wins.
On Feb. 21, Brown slipped past Lehigh, 13-12, after entering the fourth quarter with a 12-6 lead, while Hofstra rallied from a four-goal deficit to earn an 11-10 victory over No. 20 UMass on a goal by Card with four seconds left.
Saturday's game followed those formulas, with the Bears jumping out to a quick lead.
Brown quickly took advantage of a Hofstra penalty for a man-up goal when quad-captain Jack Walsh '09 scored off a feed from Brady Williams '09 just 2:49 into the game. Nic Bell '09 doubled the lead eight seconds later.
Quad-captain Todd Faiella '09 and Andrew Feinberg '11 added goals later in the quarter to build a four-goal lead, but Hofstra got one back to end the quarter with a
4-1 deficit.
In a quiet second period, Feinberg and Collins Carey '10 sandwiched goals around a Hofstra score to build a 6-2 lead for Brown heading into halftime.
After 30 minutes, the Pride held a narrow 18-15 advantage in shots, while the Bears controlled the ground balls, 20-14, but the stats did not convey Bruno's dominance.
Hofstra Head Coach Seth Tierney said "close to everything" was going wrong in the first half for his team.
"Coach Tiffany does a great job," he said. "They were disrupting some things offensively on us. In the clearing game, we were clearing the ball, but ... we turned it over a little bit."
"They knocked us out of sync," he said. "They did some really unique things, and that's what Brown's known for."
The Bears continued to control the beginning of the third quarter, as Jake Hardy '10 gave Brown a 7-2 lead just 11 seconds into the frame. Card scored the first of his four goals 2:01 later, but Feinberg netted his third goal 3:37 into the quarter to restore Bruno's five-goal lead.
Feinberg then assisted on goals by quad-captain Kyle Hollingsworth '09 and Thomas Muldoon '10 that came seven seconds apart, giving Brown a 10-3 lead with 6:17 remaining in the third quarter.
"The men were flying around," Tiffany said. "Even into the first half of the third quarter, we were playing great scramble lacrosse, not a lot of set plays. (When the) ball hit the ground, we were flying to it, picking it up, moving it, looking for transitions, creating plays, creating opportunities."
Things looked rosy for Bruno at that point, but the Bears' offense faltered, failing to score for the remaining 28:58, while Hofstra scored twice to cut Brown's lead to 10-5 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Pride then cut the deficit to three on a pair of goals 24 seconds apart. Card notched a man-up goal, and then assisted on a score by Tom Dooley with 11 minutes left in regulation.
"Hofstra got a couple of their own scramble goals of their own in the fourth quarter - you know, you sort of live by the sword, die by the sword," Tiffany said. "If you're going to be up and down, you're going to give up a couple up and down, and then it's 10-7."
Tiffany said he knew Hofstra was capable of getting back a few goals, but the truly frustrating moments came in the final minutes of the game. Dan Stein scored with 4:18 left and Kevin Ford followed 1:03 later to cut Brown's lead to a single goal. Time could not wear away quickly enough for the Bears, and Anthony Muscarella scored the tying goal with 1:08 left in regulation.
Hofstra dominated the final two quarters in shots, 24-11, and ground balls, 17-7, but Brown had a glimmer of hope going into the first four-minute, sudden death overtime period. The Pride had been flagged late in the fourth quarter, giving the Bears 55 seconds to try to end the game with the extra man.
Brown took the only three shots of the first overtime, but attempts by Reade Seligmann '09 and Muldoon went wide, and Hofstra's Danny Orlando made one of his nine saves on a shot by Walsh to send the game into a second overtime.
About 2:30 passed before quad-captain Jordan Burke '09 made a strong save, one of 15 on the game, on a hard shot by Muscarella. The Bears went back the other way, but Orlando saved one shot and a second hit the post.
With 40 seconds left, Muldoon was called for an illegal body check, the last of many calls that prompted the crowd to rain boos upon the officials. Hofstra took 21 seconds to seize the opportunity, as Michael Colleluori fired a pass across the crease that found Card near the left post, where he managed to slip a shot past Burke to give the Pride the 11-10 victory.
Tiffany said that facing their second fourth quarter collapse in as many weeks leaves the Bears searching for answers.
"As a coach, I'll address those things, but what does that really mean? It's not a scheme, it's not a play, it's not a strategy. I want to say it's an attitude, and it's a sense of purpose, but we have that. That's what's bewildering me," he said.
The Bears will have to turn it around soon. They will host Quinnipiac on Friday at 3 p.m. and Denver on Sunday at 1 p.m. on Meister-Kavan Field.
"I was actually quite happy with the defensive play today, the intensity we had on the defensive end - chopping the sticks and creating loose balls and picking up loose balls," Tiffany said. "We found our defense today, which is exciting for me. Making those plays on the offensive end for 60 minutes, that's what we've got to sustain."
